[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 21, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            NURSING SHORTAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of the 
House the impending shortage of nurses. I am one of three nurses 
currently serving in Congress. Before I was elected, I served the 
people of Santa Barbara as a public health nurse over 20 years.
  My experience gives me a distinct perspective on nursing issues. I 
know firsthand the challenges facing the nursing profession and the 
consequences if we fail to meet them. Nurses are the first line of 
defense in our health care system, and the importance of this role 
cannot be overstated.
  Today the nursing community is facing a dire situation. There is 
currently an ongoing shortage of nurses in the work force. In the past, 
this type of shortage has been resolved when pay and benefits have 
risen enough to attract new nurses into the field. But that is not the 
case this time. While some compensation levels have been rising, these 
improvements have not attracted enough nurses back into practice.
  We are also facing a looming crisis in a profession that will strain 
the health care system and threaten the quality of care. We have an 
aging nursing work force and a dwindling supply of new nurses. Right 
now, the average age of employed registered nurses is 43 years. By 
2010, 40 percent of the RN work force will be over 50.
  Unfortunately, and in contrast, the number of young nurses is 
decreasing. Under 30 years of age, it has now declined by 41 percent. 
With this combination, we are facing an incredible shortfall of well-
trained, experienced nurses in all fields.
  To make matters worse, this will happen just as the 78 million 
members of the baby boom generation begin to retire and need an even 
greater amount of health care.
  In my home State of California, the problem is even worse. Less than 
10 percent of the RN work force back home is under the age of 30, and 
nearly a third are over the age of 50. California already ranks 50th 
among the States in RNs per capita.
  Part of the problem is that the nursing work force is so homogeneous. 
The vast majority of nurses are white women. Fifty years ago, a smart 
young woman had only a handful of career options available to her, 
including nursing. But as our society's views on women's equality have 
progressed, we have not escaped the perception that nursing is women's 
work.
  As young women have explored different careers, very few young men 
have entered the nursing work force to replace them. So right now less 
than 6 percent of the nursing work force is comprised of men.
  Likewise, even though the percentage of minorities in our national 
work force has arisen close to 25 percent, minorities still only 
represent 10 percent of RNs.
  In order to deal with this looming shortage, we are going to need to 
address a number of issues and to be very creative in our solutions. We 
need to draw more people into the profession, particularly the young 
men and women at the high school level who are just choosing their 
career paths. We need to reach out to minorities and disadvantaged 
youth. We need to retain those nurses who are already in the work 
force. We need to make sure we have enough nursing school faculty, 
mentors and preceptors to properly education and train our work force.

                              {time}  1245

  I have been working with various working groups, with Senator John 
Kerry, and other Members of Congress to develop a set of measures that 
can help deal with both the immediate and the long-term problems that 
we face. Soon I will be introducing comprehensive legislation to 
address these shortages.
  This legislation will include proposals to improve access to nursing 
education, to create partnerships between health care providers and 
educational institutions, to support nurses as they seek more training, 
and to improve the collection and analysis of data about the nursing 
workforce.
  But we will also need to look at creative new ideas to truly address 
this problem. In my home town, Santa Barbara, Cottage Hospital and 
Santa Barbara City College have joined with San Marcos High School to 
create a health academy. This is a perfect example of the kind of 
creative solution we need.
  In their sophomore year, 60 students will start taking health-care 
courses taught by professionals from the hospital and college. When 
they graduate, they can be certified nursing assistants or continue 
their nursing education in SBCC's 2-year nursing education RN program. 
For its first class in this high school, there are already 128 
applicants for those 60 spaces.
  This program can serve to recruit young men and women into the 
nursing profession as well as change misperceptions among other 
students and teachers about the value of a nursing career. With 
support, this program could be replicated in other high-need areas, or 
other types of public-private partnerships could be developed.
  The challenges we face in the nursing and public health communities 
are becoming more and more evident and the need for national action on 
them is equally evident.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in this effort so we 
can achieve a bipartisan solution to these problems.

                          ____________________